Originally published in the Tecumseh Herald, October 21, 2021
Last weekend, I had the honor of witnessing the induction of Mr. Gordie Theisen into the Siena Heights University Athletic Hall of Fame. Theisen and I were classmates at Siena back in the late 1970s and later on became pretty good friends.
I mention Theisen because he always has been the kind of person who inspires others–his kids, his players, his teammates, coaches, family, friends. Coaches are supposed to inspire, of course. But Theisen is the kind of person whose ability to inspire others comes as much from the life he lives, as the words he speaks.
In life as in baseball–any sport, really–there are important lessons to be learned. There are lessons about rules and strategies and base-running and illegal pitches and strike zones. And then there are the life lessons that come from any sport, the lessons learned on the field that apply to real life, things like sportsmanship, winning and losing, and relationships.
In his 40-year career, Theisen has had plenty of opportunities to build lasting relationships. He was Siena’s head baseball coach from 1987-2003, racking up 341 victories including several over Division I opponents. He went on to a successful career as a pitching coach at Adrian College, and then in 2014, was hired as a pitching coach at Hillsdale College by his son, Eric Theisen, then head coach of the Chargers. Earlier this year, the senior Theisen began a new job as the assistant baseball coach at Grand Valley State University.
From his years as an undergraduate on the Saints baseball team to coaching Little League, high school, and finally college–Theisen has had a lot of curveballs, knuckleballs, fastballs, and sinkers thrown his way.
“All of us involved in sports, we understand our sports are just part of the picture of life our students are dealing with,” he said. “But some many of the things we deal with in sports can contribute life lessons to our players and ourselves.”
Theisen considers himself a “work in progress,” even at the age of 63. In the last 8 years, so many things have changed in coaching baseball that Theisen said he has had to unlearn a lot of things he used to do and embrace the kinds of things he never expected. Take science, for example.
“I have zero science background,” he said. “I have learned more science since I turned 60 than I learned in the first 60 years of my life. Do I understand it? Not a lick. But I’m trying. I’m out there learning and trying to get better.”
Throughout his career, Theisen has focused on cementing relationships and teaching his players just how important these are, whether it’s a shortstop stepping up to turn a double play or a right fielder leaping up to catch a fly ball and save a no-hitter. The relationship is the key.
“In life, we have our morning routines, our yearly calendars,” he said. “For all of us, something is going to happen in a day, a week, a month, a year that is going to muck up our plans and we have to be able to adjust to it. That’s what happens on the baseball field, the basketball court, the football field, wherever you go. You have to adjust to things that are out of your control. Sometimes we get kicked in the teeth, we have to make the adjustment. It happens in our sports and it happens in our lives.”
The relationships make the difference.
“Life can kick us in the teeth,” he said. “You can be on a roll and a bigger, stronger, faster opponent can kick you down and you know what you have to do? You got to get up because you have a game the next day.”
In introducing his father to the HOF crowd Friday night, Theisen’s son, Eric, said, “There is no better role model to look up to than my dad.
“Because of all the love he showed everyone, his emphasis on the importance of relationships, trust, and love, no one embodies more of what it means to be a ‘Saint’ than my dad and there is no one I’d rather be like as I grow older.”
I don’t think I could have said it better.
SQUIBS 